Thursday, July 18, 2013

MadVillain- All Caps (2003) Part 2

From the start, I had in mind what I'd wanted this animation look like, I just needed to figure out the best methods/software, to make it happen. I did have a handful of references of motion graphics composition I'd seen seen that had similar look to what I had in mind. The animation was another story.

I scoured 1960's Marvel Comics, particularly the work of Jack Kirby for inspiration. So much so, that I ended up borrowing some of his actual poses:
By now, the song had changed to "All Caps"(which was a much better song as well as considerably shorter), and Wolf was OK to keeping the same budget. He was pretty hands off with the whole project, trusting that I knew what the hell I was doing(!). I just kept giving him updates saying, "well, it's gonna be weird", to which he'd reply "Weird is good!".
The real trick with this was to try and make it look like heavily inked panels, move, and retain the weathered old comic look. This involved drawing and inking each frame of animation. To top it off, I wanted also use 3D camera moves. I had my work cut out, as, I had 2 months to get this done. I feverishly started the artwork, finishing up the toughest shots first. I hand inked everything, converted the shots to EPS, colored it in Illustrator, and composited it in Flash and After Effects as seen here:
As time went on, I wanted to do a lot more animating that I'd planned. A ton of ideas had come along the way, as well as having 'comic-ads' that would come to life. This involved shooting real actors against green screen, and compositing. Before I knew it, this project was taking a lot longer, and costing way more than I'd set out (continued).